There is no better person than Shekhar Gupta to talk about and on behalf of Corporate India, “pretty much controlled by a small ecosystem of friends and families, interconnected with marital, ethnic, caste (and sub-caste or clan) ties, plus IOUs”.

Some highlights from his article on Modi and Corporate India

the other [Mumbai] legacy, old-economy Indian entrepreneurship and the financial world still pretty much controlled by a small ecosystem of friends and families, interconnected with marital, ethnic, caste (and sub-caste or clan) ties, plus IOUs.

Corporate India got more involved in ‘Mission Modi’ than at any time in national politics. Mumbai thought it had found its man for Delhi. It believed it succeeded and there were whoops of celebration. That ended quickly. Four years on, it has now turned into suspicion and fear. Mumbai is finally, and deeply, frightened of Delhi.

Tax terrorism of today, if you hear the same businessmen who contributed heavily to his campaign — and are still putting money for him in electoral bonds — is worse than anything they remember, they say.

A couple [corporate India] might just have whispered some criticism of demonetisation but were chastened by a slap on the wrist — just a friendly phone call from Delhi.

The big, rich guy’s biggest fear isn’t bankruptcy, but the police. As we noted earlier, none of them has been raided or prosecuted criminally yet. But, first Vijay Mallya and then the Nirav Modi-Mehul Choksi duo have given corporate India a foretaste of criminalisation of economic offences.